Camille Romano for Purl Soho: Rookery Scarf

Soft and warm as featherdown and dramatic as dark birds against a pale winter sky, our Rookery Scarf pattern comes to us from knitwear designer Camille Romano. For her Purl Soho debut, Camille chose our big, bold Pouf yarn, literally spun around air, to make this gorgeous reversible scarf unbelievably light and buoyant for its generous size!

These graphic vertical stripes are created with stranded colorwork, alternating between the two colors across every row, including the cast-on and bind-off edges. By consistently crossing the new color over the old, Camille found an effortless way to create a beautiful, feather-like herringbone pattern on the back of the scarf. It’s so satisfying to watch an intricate effect emerge from such a simple motion!

Pouf‘s chunky weight makes the rows fly by, and when you’re done knitting, you’ll be glad to have one more step before your Rookery Scarf takes wing. Add a bit of movement with long tassels at each end, creating a striped fringe that extends the pattern all the way to the very tips.

A big, fluffy ball of fun, Pouf’s unique spin whips a 50/50 mix of long-fiber alpaca and fine highland wool around a hollow core to make an airy bulky- to super bulky-weight yarn. Pouf is an absolute joy to knit; its light weight feels so easygoing and its softness so dreamy.

The combination of colorwork fabric, naturally insulating wool and alpaca fibers, and the yarn’s lofty spin makes this just about the coziest scarf we can imagine… Well done, Camille! Pick up a few balls of Pouf in your two favorite colors and cast on for a Rookery Scarf to feather your nest against winter’s coldest days.

Yarn lovers, if you adore the yarn used in this project, you’ll love exploring all of our other yarn collections! Discover over 55 thoughtfully designed yarns in nearly every natural fiber and in every spectacular color you can imagine. Only available here at Purl Soho’s online yarn store, where every skein is created with care and your creativity in mind!

Pattern designed and written by Camille Romano for Purl Soho. Originally from France and now based in Helsinki, Finland, Camille is a graphic designer and art director whose love of clean lines, playful geometry, and thoughtful construction shines through in her knitwear designs. Her distinctive patterns combine bold visual ideas with clever techniques and unexpected details, bringing a fresh, modern perspective. See more from Camille on her website!

Story written by Andrea Lotz for Purl Soho.

Want to print this pattern? On desktop, find the “print” icon in the right margin, and on mobile, scroll to the end of the pattern for it. Use the on-screen instructions to remove anything you don’t want to print!

Materials

• Purl Soho’s Pouf, 50% alpaca and 50% Andean highland wool. Each ball of this chunky/bulky- to super bulky-weight yarn is 108 yards/ 100 grams.
  • Main Color (MC): 3 balls; approximately 225 yards required. We used the color Hot Coffee.
  • Contrast Color (CC): 2 balls; approximately 195 yards required. We used the color Heirloom White.
• US 10½ (6.5 mm), straight or 24-inch circular knitting needles
• A crochet hook in size L-N (8-10mm)

GAUGE

14 stitches and 16 rows = 4 inches in stranded colorwork pattern

NOTE: Your gauge swatch is a good opportunity to practice stranded colorwork if it’s new to you!

SIZE

Finished Dimensions: 11 inches wide x 79 inches long, excluding tassels

NOTES

STITCH MULTIPLE

This pattern works over a multiple of 6 + 3 stitches.

SLIP STITCHES

Right-side rows: Slip all slip stitches purlwise with yarn in back.

Wrong-side rows: Slip all slip stitches purlwise with yarn in front.

CHANGING COLORS

In order to create the zigzag effect on the back of the work, always change colors by bringing the new color strand over the old one on both right-side and wrong-side rows. This will cause all your floats to create the zigzags.

For a visual of bringing the new color strand over the old one, visit our Trapping Floats Tutorial and scroll down to the second photo in the Step-by-Step Instructions. Although you’re not trapping a float for the Rookery Scarf, this photo shows bringing a new strand (gray) over the old one (green) and may be helpful!

PATTERN

Cast on 39 stitches, using a Long Tail Cast On and alternating between the Main Color (MC) and Contrast Color (CC) as follows (see Notes, Changing Colors for tips on carrying floats to create a tidy, reversible fabric)…

Make a slip knot on needle with MC, cast on 2 more stitches; make a slip knot on needle with CC (next to MC stitches), cast on 2 more stitches; [switching to MC, cast on 3 stitches; switching to CC, cast on 3 stitches] 5 times, switching to MC, cast on 3 stitches. [39 stitches: 21 MC stitches and 18 CC stitches]

NOTE: The MC and CC strands will twist together every time you change colors in this pattern. To avoid having to constantly untwist these strands, turn your work clockwise without changing the position of your yarn balls at the end of each row. The strands will naturally untangle themselves on the following row!

Set-Up Row (wrong side): Slip 1 (see Notes), p2 with MC, bring CC underneath cast-on edge to front of work, *p3 with CC, p3 with MC, repeat from * to last 6 stitches, p3 with CC, (p1, slip 1, p1) with MC.

Row 1 (right side): Slip 1 (see Notes), k2 with MC, *k3 with CC, k3 with MC, repeat from * to last 6 stitches, k3 with CC, (k1, slip 1, k1) with MC.

Row 2 (wrong side): Slip 1, p2 with MC, *p3 with CC, p3 with MC repeat from * to last 6 stitches, p3 with CC, (p1, slip 1, p1) with MC.

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until piece measures 78¾ inches from cast-on edge, ending with Row 2.

With right side facing you and continuing to change colors, bind off all stitches as follows…

K2 with MC, pass first stitch over, *bind off 3 stitches with CC (1 MC stitch and 2 CC stitches), bind off 3 stitches with MC (1 CC stitch and 2 MC stitches), repeat from * until 2 stitches remain (1 on each needle), cut CC, bind off 1 stitch with MC, cut yarn and pull through remaining stitch.

FINISHING

Weave in all ends and gently wet block.

TASSELS

Cut three 14-inch strands of MC.

Orient piece with right side facing you and bind-off edge at the bottom, and insert crochet hook from wrong side of work to right side through center stitch of first MC stripe at bind-off edge. Fold the three strands in half, and use crochet hook to grab the folded midpoint and pull strands through to the wrong side of the work, forming a loop. Pass the strands’ tails through the loop and pull gently to tighten.

Repeat for every MC stripe along the whole edge; then using CC, repeat for every CC stripe until there are a total of 13 tassels along bind-off edge.

Repeat along cast-on edge. Trim tassels if necessary.

Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho. We can’t wait to see what you make!

Looking for more inspiration? Explore all of our knitting patterns (including tons of free knitting patterns) and knitting tutorials, buy one of our many knitting kits and yarn bundles, and shop for beautiful yarn. We have over 55 gorgeous natural fiber yarns in 1,000s of magnificent colors, designed to bring integrity, beauty, and joy to your next knitting project and only available at Purl Soho!